Landsail Tyres J-Cup 21st Birthday Celebration
By invitation of Key Yachting, the 2020 Landsail Tyres J-Cup celebrated the 21st birthday of the annual regatta exclusively for J/Boats. Whilst the regatta was somewhat different this year, the spirit of the J/Boats family was as strong as ever. Hosted for the first time by the Royal Ocean Racing Club, the regatta was a huge success. 50 J/Boats with over 200 crew enjoyed great racing, plus safe and secure social functions at the RORC Clubhouse in Cowes.
Tony & Sally Mack's McFly retained the J/111 National Championship and was also awarded the J-Cup. Full results at https://yachtscoring.com/event_results_cumulative.cfm?eID=11774
J/Fest Chicago Celebrates Sailing Again
Following Chicago's pandemic guidelines, the Chicago Corinthian Yacht Club was able to host Chicago's first one-design keelboat regatta for just J/Crews - the inaugural J/Fest Chicago. The event took place August 29-30, sailing out of Montrose Harbor, with racing taking place on the waters of Lake Michigan. In the J/111 one-design fleet, it was a match race duel all weekend between the two boats. In the end, it was John Kalanik's PURA VIDA winning over their colleagues on MOMENTUS (Kevin Saedi & Raman Yousefi). For more J/Fest Chicago information, visit https://yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eID=13130.
Fast & Furious Stamford Overnight Race
Stamford Yacht Club hosted their popular Overnight Race on the waters of Long Island Sound for a fleet of PHRF offshore teams. It is a fast overnight race, and for the first time, the event featured a large PHRF Doublehanded class. In the "big boat" PHRF A Division, Bill and Jackie Baxter's J/111 FIREBALL took the silver in their class. For more Stamford Overnight Race information, visit https://www.stamfordyc.com/.
Battle at Beaver Island Race Weekend
Little Traverse Yacht Club in Harbor Spring, MI annually hosts their 68.0nm Beaver Island Race Weekend toward the end of summer. This year was different than past races, due to the pandemic guidelines they had to adhere to from the state of Michigan. It was a straightforward weekend regatta, comprising of two legs of 34.0nm each: a round-trip from a start off Harbor Point Light in Little Traverse Bay, out into Lake Michigan, across to Beaver Island, finishing off St. James Light. Stay overnight on anchor or mooring, then race back. On the outbound race to Beaver Island, winning that first leg was Bob Matthews's J/105 GRYPHON, with Scott Sellers's J/111 NO SURPRISE taking second. On the return, Sellers's NO SURPRISE took second again while Matthews's GRYPHON dropped to fourth place. For the combined results, the J/111 NO SURPRISE lost the tie-breaker to take the silver overall, while the J/105 GRYHPON took the bronze. For more Little Traverse YC Beaver Island Race information, visit https://ltyc.org/.
Wild Hook Race
The HOOK is the Racine Yacht Club’s premier yacht race, and 2020 marks its 37th year. It is a race from Racine through "Death’s Door" at the top of the Door County peninsula to a port in Green Bay. The first HOOK, named by a member who saw a picture of the course and thought it looked like a hook, was sailed in 1984 with 12 boats racing from Racine, Wisconsin to Menominee, Michigan, finishing off Menominee’s marina and the M&M Yacht Club. The finish line at M&M is between a trailer on the marina seawall and a buoy just offshore. Total distance is some 189.0nm. This year’s event saw challenging, nasty weather at times, with two fronts passing over the race track before the fleet could finish. With a limit of 100 boats to participate, storms led to significant attrition: 4 withdrew, 5 did not start, and 29 did not finish. In the J/111 Class, NO SURPRISE won followed by Kevin Saedi & Raman Yousefi's MOMENTUS. For more Racine YC The Hook Race information, visit https://www.racineyachtclub.org/the-hook.
J/111 Tops IRC 1 at Royal Southern YC Charity Cup Regatta
With not a breath of wind in The Solent, racing was called off at midday on the final day of the Royal Southern Yacht Club Charity Cup Regatta. A virtual prizegiving was held at the RSYC Clubhouse on the banks of the River Hamble. Commodore Graham Nixon welcomed the virtual audience using Facebook live. A charity raffle was also conducted with all the proceeds going to the chosen charities of the regatta: Solent Mind and Hamble Sea Scouts. Commodore Nixon opened proceedings and thanked all of the supporting partners for the regatta and the volunteers and club members. There was a special thank you for the two race officers, Stuart Childerley and Tanya Robinson, who produced excellent racecourses for the regatta. Commodore Nixon commented, "The Royal Southern is delighted to see all of the competitors racing over the three days, and it has been equally delightful for us to host the event. It has been a frustrating four months where we have had to cancel our open events. I am delighted to say that we intend to run Hamble Classics (22-23 August) and our September Regatta (19-20 September). We hope to see everybody there, and we have already booked the same weather with a little more wind!" Stuart Childerley said, "We have had three days of good racing, and it has been great to see everyone out there, taking the first tentative steps back to racing at this time. Congratulations to all the winners. In these difficult times, it is really pleasing to see people enjoying their sailing in a safe manner." Paul Ward, Chair of Sailing at the Royal Southern YC, added, "It’s been fantastic to get everybody out sailing. There is a long history of top class Solent racing at this club. This is what we do, and it is great to back out there again, especially with such a fantastic and varied entry. We have had a lot of help putting this event together, particularly from the RYA and a great race team led by Stuart Childerley. All of the team at the Royal Southern have worked really hard, afloat and ashore, to keep everything safe and run a good regatta." In IRC 1, Tony Mack’s J/111 McFly took top honors. Full results at https://yachtscoring.com/event_results_cumulative.cfm?eID=13042.
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